Airport security scrutinized after Utah breach

1of2A SkyWest regional jet, like the one Brian Hedglin commandeered, is shown on the tarmac on Tuesday.Photo: AP

2of2Brian Hedglin, a SkyWest pilot, was the key suspect in a murder.Photo: AP

SALT LAKE CITY — Pilot and slaying suspect Brian Hedglin knew how to fly planes. He just needed access to one.

Turns out, it was as easy as using a rug to scale a security fence topped with razor wire at a small Utah airport in the middle of night, then slipping past security, boarding an empty 50-passenger SkyWest Airlines jet and revving up the engines.

He crashed the plane in a parking lot and shot himself in the head, never getting off the ground. But the incident has raised concerns that the nation's airports might not be as safe as they should be.

At least one aviation security expert says it might be time to revisit those protocols.

“Maybe we need to implement some more levels of perimeter security because any type of security incident like this is a lesson to both the good guys and the bad guys. They read the papers just as much as we do,” said Jeff Price, an aviation security expert and aviation professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

The former assistant security director at Denver International Airport said that even after Hedglin gained access to the airfield early Tuesday, he shouldn't have been able to get aboard the plane.

“It should have been locked and secured if it wasn't in use,” Price said.

TSA spokeswoman Jonella Culmer said the agency is “currently reviewing perimeter compliance” at the St. George Municipal Airport, which is about 120 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

City spokesman Marc Mortenson noted that the airport is surrounded by six miles of perimeter fencing.

Local authorities were investigating the breach, but Mortenson said the facility meets all Federal Aviation Administration and TSA security requirements. But he said the entire perimeter isn't observed at all times, “and I would dare say it isn't at any airport in the country.”

SkyWest spokeswoman Marissa Snow said Hedglin was a pilot for the airline since 2005 but had been on administrative leave since Friday, the day that police found the body of his girlfriend and fellow Colorado National Guard member, Christina Cornejo, in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Authorities say she had been stabbed multiple times. Hedglin was the key suspect but had not been charged.

Colorado Springs police said they asked SkyWest to deactivate Hedglin's access cards in case he showed up at the airline's facilities anywhere in the country. How the 40-year-old was able to gain access to the plane remained unclear.

The Gazette of Colorado Springs, citing court records, reported that Hedglin dated Cornejo for four years and was arrested in March after he was accused of harassing her.

The records show that a restraining order was issued against Hedglin, and he was set for trial in August. He was released on $10,000 bail.

Attorney Steven Rodemer, who represented Hedglin in that case, said he was facing misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief, theft and harassment but that felony charges were dismissed July 12.

Rodemer said he hadn't seen Hedglin since their last court date that day.

A police officer making rounds at the airport early Tuesday found a motorcycle with the engine running outside the perimeter fence, said Mortenson, the city spokesman. As the officer searched for the owner, he came upon the idling plane and called SkyWest.

The airline sent an employee to turn off the engines. Inside, Hedglin was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head.

Snow, the airline spokeswoman, noted that an inexperienced person could not have operated the plane, but she did not explain how Hedglin got aboard.